I agree

No comment needed... we are glad that a moratorium has been proclaimed but that is not victory yet!

Hazed Horizons

Driving home my eye caught the huge smoke haze and I took some Cell pics... found out later it was a huge veld fire at Barkley West near Kimberley!

"VLAMTONG: Hoog stu die vlamme in Kamp Agt van nuwelingboere buite Barkly-Wes waar veldbrande verwoesting gesaai het." Foto: Emile Hendricks
Will add more when I find out more about the blaze.

at the N1 robot
Then I found a safe spot to take these 3 before the sun set.



Must have been one heck of a fire to produce such a smoke cloud...
Quite impressed with this Nokia too... nifty camera!
"A small spark neglected has often kindled a mighty conflagration". Quintus Curtius.

Frodo4FingerZ we will miss you!

I was saddened to read about this today, a promising young engineer and artist has passed while doing something he dreamed of, I did not know him but after reading his blog The Grey Havens I knew him better.
My sincere condolences to his family.
This is the SANAE IV base where Dewald was stationed on in Antartica.

Alien Invader with a cute name - Fairy Moss

"Azolla filiculoides- Fairy Moss (Salviniaceae)
Small, free-floating aquatic fern with pinnately branched rhizomes. The frond is almost moss-like, 1/16 inch long with 2 lobes, the upper lobe floating, the lower lobe larger and submerged. Sporocarps are produced by the lower lobe. The plant is native from Washington to Mexico and South America"

View across the dam and mats of Azolla from the Bird Hide on the northen side of the dam.
Some of the weed is eaten by waterfowl but not nearly enough!
A view from the Koppie down on the lower dam near the N1 highway, which is completely covered!
Close up of the critter. Quite pretty and I can see why people would want it in a fishpond or aquarium.
A view of the main dam from the Koppie, not nearly as bad as the lower dam. The Bird hide is in the tree line on the bottom of the picture.
The plaque at the dam wall explaining what the weed is about. Excuse the bird droppings!

"Forms dense mats that choke out other species. Azolla lives in symbiosis with blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), taking advantage of their ability to fix nitrogen. It is sometimes introduced and used by farmers as a natural fertilizer for this reason."
The probable source for our invader in the Botanic Gardens was aquatic gardens and aquariums.
What is interesting is that it can be used as a fertilizer/compost, the problem is finding a economic way to harvest it and at the same time control this pest in our dams and rivers. At least it is not as bad as Kariba Weed! Our cold winters save us from that horrid invader.